Royal Navy clears Martlet missile for front-line use
A Royal Navy Leonardo AW159 Wildcat fitted with weapons wings that are shown carrying Martlet missiles on their inboard stations. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
The UK Royal Navy (RN) has declared full operating capability (FOC) for the Thales Martlet, clearing the missile for operational use aboard its Leonardo AW159 Wildcat HMA2 helicopters.
Announced by the service on 18 October, the declaration of FOC means that the Wildcat can now employ the low-yield weapon that it carries on its weapons wings.
“During the final day and night trials, the Lightweight Multirole Missile – known as Martlet by the Royal Navy – blasted drones out of the sky and from the surface, first off the Welsh coast and later in the French Mediterranean, leaving behind ‘nothing but wreckage',” the RN said.
The standard 13 kg Martlet design does not feature a seeker but uses laser sensors, with the missile riding the beam to the target from the sighting device at ranges from 400 m out to beyond 6 km. Thales says the missile can be integrated with seeker options including semi-active laser (SAL) and infrared (IR). The Ministry of Defence (MoD) previously told Janes that the UK order does not carry those features, but that “the new missiles retain the proven Thales laser beam-riding technology”.
A representative loadout could see the weapons wing-equipped Wildcat carry as many as 10 Martlets on the inboard stations (five per station), as well as two MBDA Sea Venom longer-range missiles on the outer stations (one per station). It is later planned to carry the BAE Systems Sting Ray lightweight torpedoes and Mk 11 depth charge.
For more information on the Martlet, please see Update: UK government announces GBP176 million deal for ‘always on' LMM production .
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